Until the other day I felt confident in my waxing technique and knowledge about preparing the client's skin before and after wax. Then I had a waxing experience go wrong.

The setup was an appointment for a full arm wax on a man.

The man had everything waxed including hands and knuckles. His arm hair went all the way around his arm from shoulder to wrist; nothing on the palm of the hand.

While the hair was not too thick on the upper arm it was thick on the lower arm and especially beginning above the wrist and onto the hand. THIS IS WHERE, IN PARTICULAR, I HAD DIFFICULTY.

I used soft wax with strips as the usual for large areas.

Spreading the direction of hair growth (thin as possible), pressing along the strip a couple times, pulling parallel to the skin quickly and applying pressure. Doing what we know is proper technique...

I haven't done a lot of arms, but this was certainly not my first. Before the appointment I even reviewed videos I have purchased from waxing professionals here at ASCP... I moved from the upper arm down holding the arm taut, but when I got to the lower arm I began having difficulty. We wound up having him recline on the treatment table which did seem to work better than sitting up.

Here is part of what I think I was unprepared to deal correctly with:

Spreading the wax on the especially hairy areas (around the wrist and on the hand).

Getting the skin to be tight enough to pull without lifting, esp. around the wrist and on the hand.

It is possible that the temperature in the salon/spa was several degrees lower than the ideal, but I may have to deal with that.

So...what happened was that as I moved down the arm things began to fall apart. By the time I got to the lower areas I would pull the strip and the wax would not come up becoming a gooey mess. I then tried to remove it and the hair with hard wax. Nothing seemed to be going well. The skin was black so it was a little hard to tell about the level of redness/irritation, but it certainly was evident that a few spots of skin lifted (again, esp. in the areas noted above). I can imagine there was a good deal of inflammation.

I applied soothing and calming (& tea tree) products post wax.

I was so horrified and I did not feel in control of this situation. This was an experience like no other I have had and the very first time ever, that I did not offer my business card afterwards; I was that embarrassed.

I would love all of your feeldback! 

Thanks,

Sally